Madonsela will not appear before section 194 committee
The section 194 committee looking into Busisiwe Mkhwebane's fitness to hold office has decided that former public protector Thuli Madonsela will not give testimony before the committee.
Madonsela was set to testify on Wednesday on matters related to the CIEX and Vrede reports.
Madonsela had previously indicated that she does not see how her testimony will contribute to the inquiry, but the committee later resolved to summon her.
Advocate Dali Mpofu, representing Mkhwebane, on Wednesday told the committee that he received instructions to ask for Madonsela's appearance to be rescheduled.
He said they would be doing their client a huge disservice if they were to proceed.
A letter was received from Mkhwebane’s legal team on Tuesday requesting the rescheduling of Madonsela’s appearance, a request which was denied.
"We received your letter sometime overnight yesterday and after that, we also had an occasion to watch the proceedings from yesterday,” Mpofu told MPs.
“Therefore we have been instructed to just respond to both the letter and those proceedings.
“Chair, I think I must just say that both the letter and your proceedings were received with a lot of pain by our client, also watching what was said about her from which we were excluded from the discussions.
“So we were helpless as we watched the rules of the committee and directives being violated from left right and centre.
“It looks like to her the slogan ‘nothing about us without us’ doesn’t apply because she was being discussed in her absence and without her input which just violates her rights as a citizen," added Mpofu.
After the break, committee chairperson Qubudile Dyantyi agreed that Madonsela's evidence will be held over to the next two weeks after her amended statement is submitted.
Dyantyi said Mkhwebane's statement must be submitted for preparation for her evidence to be given on 15 March.
"There would have been an arrangement that from next week the 7th of March we would have expected the statement of the public protector to be submitted to the committee in preparations for the 15th of March to start the testimony with the former public protector.”
After agreeing on a new date, the committee couldn't agree on whose going to lead Madondela's evidence.
Evidence leader advocate Nazreen Bawa SC argued that the witness was not called by the committee but by Mpofu who refused to lead the evidence.
The committee later agreed that Madonsela's statement will be presented as her evidence.
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